In New Amsterdam, 10 June 1645, English clergyman Francis Doughty (“François Doutey” in the source) filed a complaint against Englishman William Gerritsz accusing him of writing a “scandalous” song about Doughty and his daughter Mary.

The voyage of the ship Beaver from the Netherlands to New Amsterdam in 1660 must have been an awkward one for those on board. Boudewijn van Nieulant, one of the ship’s passengers, was fleeing a woman whom he had impregnated in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam City Archives https://archief.amsterdam/inventarissen/scans/5075/54.2.1/start/100/limit/10/highlight/4

Meeting of the City Council of Amsterdam, November 3, 1649 https://archief.amsterdam/inventarissen/scans/5025/1.19/start/40/limit/10/highlight/8  https://archief.amsterdam/inventarissen/scans/5025/1.19/start/40/limit/10/highlight/9

In the inaugural Translator’s Corner in the March, 2025 e-Marcurius, Deborah Hamer translated Testimony Regarding Cornelis Pieters van Purmerent’s Labor from the City Archives in Amsterdam, Notarial...

This issue’s opening piece grows out of a talk by historical artist Len Tantillo and author Russell Shorto for the 2019 Peter Gansevoort Ten Eyck Lecture Series. In “In Search of Stuyvesant’s Bowery,” they guide the reader through the unexpected complications and contradictions they encountered while trying to pinpoint the exact location of Petrus Stuyvesant’s seventeenth-century farmhouse.

In the Dutch Atlantic world, the world order and groups within it were visualized hierarchically. This started with the foundation of the colonial trading companies in the early 17th century, and continued until well after the abolition of slavery in 1863.

In October 1657 a meeting of specially-appointed commissioners was held in New Amsterdam, likely in the City Hall. The commissioners were appointed by Director-General Peter Stuyvesant to hear a complaint by a Spanish merchant against Stuyvesant and the council of New Netherland.

Enslaved in New York, Pieter Christiaan built a family, challenged authority, and disrupted village life, leaving a rare and vivid record of power, conflict, and resilience.

In recent years, the enslavement of Indigenous people by Europeans across the Americas has received renewed attention from scholars. However, when it comes to the Dutch colonies, only in studies of the Guiana region does Dutch Indigenous slavery appear as a significant factor.

A closer look at Dutch life in St. Thomas reveals surprising parallels in language, religion, and daily life, offering new insight into the enslaved community of New Netherland.

An unmatched expert in the language of New Netherland, Gehring is retiring after 50 year interpreting colonial Dutch to explain the lives of New York’s earliest European settlers.